Tai Chi and "Go Forward with Faith"

Isn't she sweet?  This is the little daughter of Jaymee, who is one of the secretaries in the office.

Here she is with her mom.

We had a great family home evening where one of the senior Elders, Elder Thong who was from Singapore originally and now Seattle, taught us how to do Tai Chi. You can read about it here: Tai Chi.  It is quite interesting and many people practice it outside in the mornings, although we haven't see the huge numbers like we saw in Japan doing Rajiio Taisou (Rajiio Taiso)each morning, but then again we don't walk by the parks in the morning where they might congregate to exercise. We do see lots of individuals doing their own Tai Chi, though.  Here are a couple of videos if you have any interest: Tai Chi, exercise , more Tai Chi. We were told that these exercises help with strengthening the body parts and organs.  The theory is that all the nerves are linked to all the body parts and organs and moving a certain way will send energy flowing to regulate and nourish the body. It's actually pretty good exercise.

Here are the exercises:

Exercises

1.      Lifting the Indomitable Spirit and Strengthening the Bones and Muscles

2.      Opening the chest and strengthening the heart and lungs

3.      Rolling Left and Right Wind strengthening the spleen and stomach

4.      Lotus Blossoming to Removing the Rheumatism

5.      Viewing the Sunset and increasing the kidney’s Jing or Essence

6.      Picking up the needle at the sea bed and strengthening the Liver and Gallbladder

7.      Opening the Heaven and Dividing the Earth to strengthening the nervous system

8.      Centering the Punches increasing the internal Strength

9.      Palming Together and Squeezing the Waist to Straightening the Lumbar and Spine

10.   Flying To Loosening The Shoulder and Straightening the Back

11.   Dividing The Wild Horse’s Mane and Improving the Diabetes

12.   Double Hand Pushing Palm Strengthening the Waist and Back

13.   Massaging The Center of Gravity Releasing The Stomach’s Yang Energy

14.   Adopting The Righteous Chi – Energy to Removing The Evil Chi - Energy

15.   Shoveling the Root Cause of sickness and Activating the Jing - Essence

16.   Combine The Whole Body’s Chi – Energy To Strengthening the Body and Mind

17.   Leaping Heavenly Joy and Earthly Happiness Benefiting the Sleep or Slumber

18.   Leveling the Chi - Energy and Heightening the Pleasure

So there you have it!

Also, this last Saturday, as it was National Day and many of the sisters had this day off, we had a big self-reliance workshop, "Go Forward With Faith".  We have been planning this event for a few months.  There were about 200 of the sisters who came and Elder Chandler conducted the opening session. 

The first speaker was our district president, President Holyoak

Brother Scott Styles taught a great session about getting and retaining a good job, learning to communicate with the employers, etc.  He is LDS and he operates an employment agency here in Hong Kong.  He didn't advertise for his agency but many of the other employment agencies charge illegal fees which put the poor domestic helpers in debt before they even begin their jobs here.  This is what they post for their agency which is called Fair Employment Agency:

No Placement Fees

We are a non-profit organization. We know that most agencies charge placement fees to domestic workers, which is an unethical and often illegal practice. Illegal fees often leave the domestic worker in debt bondage, can negatively impact the employer family, and damage Hong Kong's international reputation. We strongly disagree with this practice, and therefore will never charge placement fees to domestic workers.

We had another great session about managing finances.

This sister, Genevieve, is one of our good friends and a member of our Island 1 Branch.  Besides being a college graduate, an on-line English teacher, she works here as a domestic worker as the pay is much better working here than most professional jobs in the Philippines. She is preparing to take more schooling on-line and study at night so she can return to the Philippines for a better job. She gave two great sessions on living a balanced life. 

After the sessions, there was a sack lunch provided for the sisters.  Also, as at any event we have here, this was also their photo-taking time. Facebook and phone calls are really about the only communication they have with their families so that is why they take lots of photos to share with them.

We thought we'd end this post with a big BANG as there were lots of fireworks that night, too.  Although we were really far away from where they were shooting them off, a person really hasn't seen fireworks until they see a fireworks display where they make them in China (and Japan) as they shoot up multiples of fireworks constantly through the shows.  With all the noise and light and sparks, it is AMAZING like nothing you've ever seen before!  

Fireworks are fun but for greater happiness

Click on the link below and:

Watch General Conference

Have a Wonderful Weekend everybody!

Macau

We're on our way from Central Pier in Hong Kong to Macau, about 40 miles away, by turbojet boat.  It takes about one hour.  Macau is the gambling capital of the world but we aren't going to gamble.  

We are going with John Bell, Academic VP of BYU Hawaii.  BYU is trying to increase the Asia percentage of students there in Hawaii.

This the street in old Macau where the Church has been for many years.  Macau was a Portuguese colony and the old part still looks that way.

There are many scooters in Macau as shown by those parked in front of the Church.  The Church name is in English, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

There are apartments above the church.

A very short walk from the church is the Lou Lim loc Garden which has been there for many years.

The park is an oasis in the middle of the most densely populated city in the world--650,000 people in 10 square miles.  That would be comparable to Salt Lake Valley having 25 million people.

Beautiful murals of sort of a water color in the museum in the park.

This is the back side of water like you see in Jungle Cruise in Disneyland.

We were there to teach the young missionaries how to facilitate self-reliance groups.  This is the group we taught.

John Bell speaking to leaders about the changes coming at BYU Hawaii.

This is a close as we got to any casinos as they are mostly on the island and we were on the peninsula.

Here are some wonderful senior missionaries who will be going home soon.  They have all served for 18 months except for two of the couple who served for a year.  They served in the Area Office, mission office, and some were temple missionaries.  All missionaries for the church are volunteers who pay their own expenses and receive no compensation from the church.
Also, we sure appreciate getting emails from some of you occasionally. Thanks so much! We wish all of you dear family and dear friends the very best in your lives!
By the way, this link is fun to watch if you have a little time:
Children's Bible Videos 

Kowloon Walled City Park

Hello Everyone!  So here was an interesting place to visit not far from where we live, the Kowloon Walled City Park. Before reading the rest of this post, please check out the following web site so you can understand about it better and then we won't need to explain: Kowloon Walled City  

The gardens were beautiful!

Here's one of the canons that the children were sitting on in the web site.

There are 12 different figures in the garden of the Chinese Zodiac. The guidebook says they were carved from white stones and arranged according to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches in Chinese astrology. (Do we wonder what that means?)

In the mornings, wherever we go there are people doing their Chinese exercises.

The Fui Sing Pavilion was named after Fui Sing who was one of the five emperors of literature in Chinese astrology.  According to legend, Fui Sing was a god who would bless scholars with good results in examinations.

There were banana plants and papaya there, too.

Where's Waldo (oops, Elder Chandler?)

Can you see the turtles?

Here are two cute little boys who were with their parents walking the paths.  The parents were kind enough to allow us to take their photo.

We then decided to walk over to the local "wet-market".  (If you aren't interested you can quit now or quickly scroll through the pictures.)

We never see bikes or places to park bikes in Hong Kong so we must be in the suburbs.
BIG Bikes

Little Bikes

Look at all of that fresh ginger; it would be worth a lot in the U.S.

We bought some of these really long green beans.  They tasted a little different but they were really good.

These might be fresh figs.

The purple vegetables are small eggplant; everyone loves eggplant here.

Look at the hanging chickens that still have their combs on.

There are so many different kinds of fruits and vegetables that we'll never learn the names of all of them.  Many of them are really good.

Then we needed to find our way to walk to another bus stop and go home.

Back home in Hung Hom,  here's Elder Chandler ready to go back to work. This beautiful fountain is just inside our apartment/hotel where we live.

Here are some of the wonderful sisters who are ready for another self-reliance class.

We've had a lot of family home evening dinners lately with the different groups that the sweet Filipino sisters have prepared so we thought we'd throw in one more photo. Don't forget to have your family home evenings, too!
Here's some ideas for family home evening:
Family Home Evening Ideas